The standard displacement of 16,000 tons of huge warships, from the perspective of shape, still follow the classic design of the "monarch class". The front and rear twin main turrets, with a higher rate of fire and a more powerful 40 times more powerful Armstrong gun, ensure a lethal blow when approaching enemy ships.

The full ten 233mm secondary guns, although the rate of fire is still insufficient, not much stronger than the main gun, but it can form a 5+4 dense strike capability on either side. This is comparable to the currently known lethal ammunition projection power of the capital warship.

Using a more advanced steam turbine or a high-power double-connected multi-expansion steam host made in China, a power system of up to 24,000 horsepower can be crammed into the currently designed hull space! Combined with the excellent Parsons heat pipe boiler, the performance of the current best "Majesty-class" battleship is increased by nearly one-third! The most intuitive benefit was that for the first time, the speed of the battleship exceeded 21 knots, reaching the speed of an armored cruiser. In terms of acceleration and cruising range, there are also eye-catching improvements.

It can be said that such a design can be called a very representative and pioneering advanced idea in the history of warships. If it had been the Royal Navy a year ago, it would not have been possible to understand such a radical idea.

But now it has been attacked by the Navy's Ordnance Chief, John Brown. Fisher's criticism and came up with another designer, Reed. Sir Edward's design scheme contrasted with each other, and thought that Sir White's design was still too conservative!

Britain is a country where bureaucracy is rampant, and as long as everyone reaches a certain position, they must consciously or unconsciously develop the wisdom of political struggle, which has almost become their instinct. Whenever it's time for a big event. It is inevitable to bite each other. And the way to solve the problem. It's a meeting and an argument.

This time is no exception, especially when it comes to the design and construction of warships in the next ten years of the British Empire, as the spokesperson of many related enterprises behind him, or directly responsible for the responsibility, every bureaucrat who can intervene is full of energy, rolling up his arms and wiping his sleeves and tearing up.

The controversy between the two warships was also the same in Admiral Arthur. Sir Hood unfolded there. By the way, because of multiple defeats in the naval battles in the Far East. Lord of the Admiralty, George. Lord Hamilton has resigned. Although the final permission has not yet been obtained, the outcome has been predicted.

In the midst of the irritation, the radical General Fisher reiterated his opinion: "...... Gentlemen, please note that we have recently summarized the key to victory for enemy ships. It is not about the thickness of the armor, but the speed, rate of fire, range, hitrate, and mobility, these five numbers are the elements that always give them the upper hand! Whether it was the Sino-Japanese naval battle in the Yellow Sea two years ago, or the later attack on the East China Sea, or even the last two joint naval operations, without exception, Chinese warships and Japanese warships. There are extremely prominent tables on these five points! I would even consider that this was the beginning of an innovation in modern naval tactics! And Sir Edward's design. I just met all the above standards. ”

He was young, energetic, generous, aggressive, and had no stage fright in the face of a crowd of noble knights and powerful generals.

Everyone's eyes were directed by him to Edward's peerless battleship blueprint. As all navy-related people, they have to admit that it is really a very beautiful good guy.

With a length of 146.3 meters, a width of 23 meters, a draft of 7.8 meters, and a wide freeboard deck, he looks more graceful and smooth than the common battleships with spindles and thick at the ends, but not delicate.

The main engine design of 20,000 horsepower, the two-shaft propulsion can reach a maximum speed of 22 knots, the 254mm main turret and waterline armor to ensure the protection capacity, and the standard displacement is 13,800 tons.

The most eye-catching thing is the design of twelve 254mm twin cannons! In addition to one on the front and one on the front, two on each side of the narrow bridge, this ensures that the battleship can have a dense number of eight concentrated fire strikes in any direction.

A single main turret, equipped with only a 76mm small cannon as a secondary gun, was a freak thing in this era.

Seeing only the caliber of the 254mm main gun, most of the gentlemen's brows couldn't help but twist into a pimple. The upright Sir Hood shook his head without thinking: "How can such a small caliber be used as the main gun of a battleship?" It's ridiculous, no! ”

William. After all, Sir White was self-contained, and only expressed his incomprehension with a solemn expression. In his opinion, Reed. Sir Edward was not like the kind of person who couldn't tell the difference, how could he rush to come up with such a strange design? Could it be that it was influenced by the enemy ship's multi-mounted turrets in the intelligence?

Unmoved, Fisher insisted on his opinion: "Dear sir, I think you should know that in many previous naval battles, the winning side was often the one who occupied the advantageous position first, aimed farther away and launched a dense attack, pouring more ammunition to flood the enemy. Facts have proved that the main warships of the Chinese Navy are striving to improve these points. And that fast battleship, whose true face we don't know yet, has taken this concept to the extreme! The Royal Navy has developed to its current status, not by sticking to the old ways, we should boldly explore forward! ”

For an English gentleman, this is already a bit too heated rhetoric.

Sir Hood's stubbornness is not something that anyone can shake. He waved his hand vigorously without question: "I absolutely disagree with any battleship appearing in the sequence of the Royal Navy with a main gun less than twelve inches!" This will become a joke among the navies of various countries! The British Empire must have an absolute lead in any number of things. Gentlemen, this is the bottom line that is not to be discussed! ”

Fisher's sharp eyes flashed, and he turned to look at Sir Edward, who was sitting quietly in the corner, patiently listening to everyone's comments.

Sir sighed silently, stood up and said in a deep voice, "In that case, we will only have to manage to install a full turret on the battleship!" But as a result, the displacement of the battleship will inevitably exceed 20,000 tons, which will make the existing slipway almost insufficient to carry its construction. Moreover, the various equipment and supporting equipment required for construction were not tested. Such a radical and risky approach. Whether it can be approved by the National Assembly is still a question. ”

As a battleship designer. Everybody wants to make the battleship bigger and more fierce, but that requires money, a lot of money! There are a lot of obstacles to be solved, from private shipyards, from the upper house of Congress, and so on.

Sir Hood apparently did not expect such trouble, and fell into a brief silence.

Several batches of battleships were built on a large scale to ensure the British Empire's global maritime supremacy. This is a recognized reality, and no one will stand in the way. But the problem is that the desire to build a completely leading battleship is now not so certain.

What kind of monster has been created by the sudden rise of the Chinese Navy, the only vague information available now cannot be accurately judged. But the results of the battle cannot be fooled, whether it is the sunken "monarch-class" or the recently fallen armored cruiser, it has proved that its powerful and terrifying strength has surpassed the British Empire in the performance of monohull battleships.

This is unacceptable.

So do what Sir Edward designed? If it is just the design in front of you, the cost is not much more expensive than the "monarch level". It's an easy number to accept. But it was really changed to a twelve-inch full-weight turret, and the whole heavy hull was enlarged in a circle. It is foreseeable that it will inevitably lead to a skyrocketing in costs, forcing two million pounds into it.

Can such an expensive guy get the approval of the old men of the council? That's a real headache!

Sir Hood subconsciously glanced at the young General Fisher. This newly promoted director of naval ordnance has an extraordinary introductory and acumen, and his tough style can now be seen, and it is foreseeable that in the future, he will inevitably strongly promote the design of radical warships into the active service of the navy. Blocking, obviously, can't be stopped. So agreed?

At the critical moment, William. White spoke, he leaned forward, let everyone's eyes pay attention to him, and said softly and forcefully: "Gentlemen, the most urgent task at present is to fill the vacant positions of the main battleships as much as possible, and to ensure that all the construction work will not be affected by external factors. Therefore, even if we can first obtain advanced power systems from the Chinese, we should never trust them and ignore our own efforts. Therefore, I believe that we should first ensure the number and progress of construction, and at the same time verify various advanced equipment technologies in a timely manner, and apply them to subsequent warships at any time. ”

This is obvious and muddy, but it invisibly guarantees that his design will inevitably be guò.

It's not that White is selfish - of course everyone does, and indeed his proposal is the most likely solution right now. If, according to Fisher's radical style, it is really done in one step according to Sir Hood's requirements, then it will take at least two or three years to form the design and start construction, verify the Guò and then officially produce it in full force.

Two or three years, at this critical time when technology is changing with each passing day, it is enough for competitors to seize the maritime supremacy of the British Empire, and everyone knows how big the impact is.

Sir Hood apparently understood, and pressed the table hard and said, "All right, then we will first decide on the construction plan according to the emergency plan." Sir White's new design, as a plan for the capital ship, was immediately started; Sir Edward's plan, perhaps after reducing the caliber of armor and main guns, can be built as a fast armored cruiser in tandem with the new ship. As for the design of the whole main gun, I hope not to put it down, if all the equipment and theory are verified, believe me, it will definitely get full support! ”

Everyone was happy with the decision, and everyone basically accepted the decision with satisfaction, and after the formation of the document, it was reported to the Congress, and under the current severe threat, the probability of not being able to pass guò will be very low.

Director Fisher was visibly disappointed. His original plan was to use Sir Edward's all-main gun design as a prelude to promote the Admiralty Commission's access to larger caliber full-gun battleships. On that day, he saw at a glance the visual view of the mysterious Chinese warship sent by the Far East, and when he landed, it was as if it had been struck by lightning! Almost subconsciously, I decided that this was exactly what the Royal Navy needed!

Extremely high speed, ghostly maneuverability, ultra-long-range precision strikes, and dense ammunition to overwhelm the enemy...... There's nothing more fitting than this!

As for the triple turret or something, he directly ignored it. He by no means believed that with the current technical conditions, it was possible to guarantee that the salvo of the three guns would not interfere with each other, let alone the uniformity and accuracy of the landing point. At least in terms of fire control, it is an extremely difficult challenge.

Comparatively. Conservative but well-established twin-mounted turret design. But it's much easier to achieve. As long as the performance of the main gun can keep up. He believed that with the Royal Navy's Suzhì and command ability, it would certainly be able to exert its combat effectiveness far beyond that of the Chinese.

It's a pity that the general environment is still intolerably conservative. However, the design of an armored cruiser that can get through guò first and retreat to the second best is not without gain. In addition, Sir Edward's original design was indeed based on the path of a fast cruiser. Changing to a full turret is just an optimization upgrade.

The plan was decided, and the British quickly went into action. It's just that no one has rigorously argued in the middle. Sir White's mixed scheme is not good or not. The conservative British style made them see the great advantage of the fully armed heavy artillery battleships, but they missed the great opportunity in vain.

Most of the equipment and materials needed for the new warship were readily available, and with all the supplies given to the remaining "Majesty-class" and the subsequent upgraded "Dreadnought-class", it was easy to start work on the slipway. It's just that the key power system, the UK has only obtained a set of samples smuggled by Ye Yongtai.

Parsons and several other powertrain manufacturers mobilized the best workers to disassemble and analyze the costly samples, and it turned out that its rough shell was wrapped in an extremely sophisticated industrial product, and in terms of precision and material strength, it was much better than that of Britain and Germany! Experienced engineers assert. The machines and alloy formulas they use are beyond imagination!

It turns out to be so. After assembling it again. The performance of that powertrain plummeted by 20 percent. The advantage is that it has brought a very considerable reference idea to several major power companies, and because Yang Hao has preemptively registered the patent, they are obviously not good at direct infringement, but there is no problem with a little "borrowing", right.......

In fact, there is no need to discuss this kind of thing at all, it involves the scope of national military competition, who cares whether you comply with the patent right or not! Especially the design patents from China, the set of rules that their own people follow each other in the Western world are not played with them on an equal footing. Even if it's infringing, you Yang Hao have a kind of drive the battleship to our doorstep to fight!

Several companies decided that if they were responsible for building a more high-performance steam turbine system, they would not expect to see a 5,000-horsepower product for a battleship for at least two years.

The most troublesome thing is that the product provided by Yang Hao is not used in Parson's reactionary steam turbine design, nor is it the structure in which the main engine is directly connected to the propeller of the propeller in their current practice. Instead, it adopts an impulsive design and geniuses "invents" the stand-alone gear reducer, which perfectly solves the recoil influence between the main engine and the thruster.

This not only bypassed the patent of the British, but also showed good superiority, which is simply a huge threat!

And after rigorous testing, the British found that the strength of the materials required for the design and the number of vibrations were much higher than those of the Parsons type, and the current technology in the UK could not be imitated! This means that they want to learn from it and surpass it, and maintain their technological superiority, it doesn't work!

If Britain wants to stay behind in the competition for building ships, it must first buy a batch of Chinese-made power systems. But the problem is that Ye Yongtai was arrested, and the large orders given by the British were served in a pot, not only did they pay a huge deposit to make a water ticket, but also led them to get the priority of supply from the first straight line to the third!

Another unlucky man, the French, came in fourth, and Germany, which was originally behind the big one, actually advanced to one or two places. The most troublesome thing is that these two countries actually spent money to obtain the technology license in the first place, and with their industrial standards, there is almost no doubt about the success of the imitation.

In particular, Germany, right under the nose of the United Kingdom, as the most direct competitor, is the first to obtain supplies from China, and the first to come up with authorized production products, which will surely lead to its huge lead. This is even more intolerable.

Minister Sa Daoyi, who hurriedly ran from Japan to China to take office, went to Yang Hao to negotiate, and the news sent back was very unoptimistic. This made the British realize that they were afraid that the other party was deliberately trying to help Germany to balance Britain, and this conspiracy was ruthless enough!

In the end, the British still chose to compromise and had to grit their teeth and pay a huge amount of advance payment, which finally guaranteed that the goods would be picked up no more than half a year later than the Germans. In this way, with the huge technological superiority and production capacity of the British Navy, it may be able to level the time gap between the Germans and overwhelm each other in numbers.

On the other hand, Germany, as the protagonist of the shipbuilding competition, made a decision faster than them. Kaiser Wilhelm II, driven by his impatient temperament, directly suppressed the two dissenting factions within the navy, and the cadres arbitrarily agreed with Alfred. Rear Admiral Tirpitz's radical shipbuilding scheme.

The first phase of the construction plan required a flagship, two sub-fleets with eight battleships each, two spare battleships, and a huge plan of nineteen battleships in total!

To this end, Germany needs to allocate 70 million marks a year, a total of 480 million yuan, so as to ensure that the German navy is the second largest and the combat effectiveness is not weaker than that of Britain. This plan needed to be completed by 1905.

Rear Admiral Tirpitz personally experienced the naval battles in the Far East and witnessed the terrifying attack power displayed by the two ships in Dingzhen, which had been refitted. After obtaining information about the Far East, he firmly believed that the vague hand-painted surfaces and the exaggerated expressions spoken by many people were all authentic and credible. The German Navy had to immediately build advanced battleships based on such excellent numbers to ensure superiority at sea and compete for colonies.

In August 1896, Germany gave priority to the first batch of steam turbine power systems seized by Yang Hao from Ye Yongtai, and also obtained the first ship that had been cut, polished, drilled and other pretreatment according to the requirements, and even bolts and other pre-treatments.

The first battleship, based on intelligence improvements, was put into construction at the same time, and was strikingly similar to the British. The Frederick III class battleship was an upgraded version of the "two twin 280mm main guns, 14 single 170mm secondary guns", which reached the level of the largest tonnage ever in the history of the German Navy. (To be continued......)